“Les Musiciens de Lviv” playing at the metro station “Chatelet”, Paris

The folklore group Musiciens de Lviv has toured around Europe for several years, until they finally settled down in Paris. The geography of their repertoire is vast – Russian romances, Gypsy ballades, music of Odessa Jews, songs of Ukranian Cossacks, Moldovian "doinas", Serbian "khoras"…Apart from performing on concerts, they are also reviving the long passages of Paris underground, regularly playing on the Bastille and Châtelet stations.

The latter is named after the Place du Châtelet, where one of the entrances to the station is located. The place has inherited its name from the castle Grand Châtelet, which was demolished by Napoléon in 1802. Until then it was serving as a fort overlooking the old Pont au Change over the Seine to the Île de la Cité (“châtelet” is a medieval term designating a small castle that overlooks a bridge or a defile).